Slackware official repository I am new to slackware.I am a debian user.
I installed slackware successfully.Which is the best pkg management tool?
What are the official repos?
Official repos have extra pasture testing source patches sections.What are these and how to enable disable/enable each ?
What are the best non official repos? Are they on the same stability level as offical release of slackware?
Any way to separate free and non free software in slackware?

NeoMetal

02-08-2013 11:49 AM

'slackpkg' is the utility to download and install official packages that are part of the distro. 'slackpkg help' or the manpage will give you usage.

The method for installing additional packages which has become most prominent is the use of slackbuilds, which are scripts to build a source tarball into a slackware binary package basically. Probably the most convenient way to do this is to install sbopkg http://www.sbopkg.org/ a curses tool for browsing, building, and installing packages via slackbuilds

Official repos have extra pasture testing source patches sections.What are these and how to enable disable/enable each ?

slackware, extra, source => see README.TXT in the respective directories
testing => Additional package + kernel config files which may or may not work for you.
patches => New versions of packages already included in /slackware, mainly upgraded following security advisories (security patches).
To enable/disable it or set priorities among them, edit /etc/slackpkg/slackpkg.conf and use slackpkg to manage them

Quote:

Originally Posted by rubankumars
(Post 4887111)

What are the best non official repos? Are they on the same stability level as offical release of slackware?

Well, that's not what the question was... he was getting at Debian's requirement that mirror sites either put those directories at the top-level or link to them there.

As far as that timeline, it's not exactly accurate (but I think most of us here know that). The start date shown for Slackware is several months after it was available via FTP and already in widespread use. For Slackware, the date of the first stable release is used. The start date shown for Debian is when Ian issued the Debian Manifesto. Their first stable release was not until 3 years later. When Linux Journal interviewed me in April 1994, the current Linux Counter stats were printed as part of the article, and Debian had one registered user. I wonder who that was?

Didier Spaier

02-08-2013 06:50 PM

Thanks for clarifications.

rubankumars

02-10-2013 08:40 AM

Reply

So no unofficial pkgs from repo is stable(should not break system hang or the like) as official ones?
So Only the base slackware (which is very minimal) is stable?
Please answer them.

brianL

02-10-2013 08:57 AM

If you mean:
Are the packages from Alien Bob, rworkman, etc, (mentioned in post #4) as reliable as those from the CDs/DVD? Yes, certainly.
Base Slackware minimal? I don't call around 7 GB of software minimal.

rkelsen

02-12-2013 06:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rubankumars
(Post 4888408)

So no unofficial pkgs from repo is stable(should not break system hang or the like) as official ones?
So Only the base slackware (which is very minimal) is stable?
Please answer them.

"Officially" all of Slackware is on the DVD.

That's it. There are no official repositories for additional packages, because there are no additional packages.

If you want to add something to it, the standard practice is to download the source code and compile it yourself.

As a Debian user, you will find that this is very different compared to what you are used to.

There are a few unofficial repositories like Slackbuilds.org, where you can download build scripts for many popular programs.

As mentioned above, if you run the "full install" off the DVD as recommended, you will probably not need to add much unless you have some very specific 'needs.'

As for "free" versus "non-free" Slackware seems to prefer practicality over politics. It is comprised of projects with many different types of licence. It doesn't favour the GPL, or automatically block anything that isn't distributed under the GPL. You won't find silly things like 'Iceweasel' in Slackware.

rubankumars

02-18-2013 06:46 AM

adding third party repo to mirror

Which is best and will not cause problems(using slackpkg)
1.To add third party repo to "mirror" file and install through slackpkg
2.Install pkgs by manually downloading

And mixing two repos will cause problems or not?
Eg mixing slacky.eu and alienbob will cause problems?(adding repo)

TobiSGD

02-18-2013 07:14 AM

You can't add repos to slackpkg, slackpkg will only handle one repo and is specifically meant for the "official" Slackware repo.
So usually you install (ready-built) packages by downloading them and using installpkg (or upgradepkg).
Therefore mixing of repos simply does not exist and can't break the system. Usually you can trust packages from AlienBob, rworkman, etc, but for the packages on slacky.eu you have to decide yourself if the quality is good.

Didier Spaier

02-18-2013 07:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TobiSGD
(Post 4894298)

for the packages on slacky.eu you have to decide yourself if the quality is good.

I propose you a small checklist to help you decide, applicable to any third party package (any 'no' answer => "do not install that"):
1) Is this package supposed to be managed with Slackware's standard package management tools?
2) Is this package provided for my version of Slackware?
3) Is this package provided for my distribution's architecture (unless "noarch" be explicitly stated)?
4) Is a SlackBuild provided?
5) Looking at the SlackBuild, did I check that bad permissions or ownership of files or directories won't mess up my system?
6) Is Slackware's naming scheme of the package respected, so that it can be properly handled by Slackware's package management tools?
7) Are the dependencies listed somewhere, if any (apart from the packages included in a full Slackware installation)?
8) Are packages available for all (possibly recursive) dependencies, with positive answers to previous questions for each of them?